All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Ethylene is a commercial and industrially important petrochemical used for the manufacture of polymers and various chemical products. One process for producing ethylene is the catalytic dehydrogenation of ethane in the presence of oxygen. This process is called oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH). In the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane, the major component in the product is ethylene, however smaller amounts of impurities such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide are also present in the oxidative dehydrogenation product. It is important to reduce and/or remove the amount of oxygen in the oxidative dehydrogenation product, since the oxygen can cause a number of problems during the handling of the oxidative dehydrogenation product, and/or during the recovery of the ethylene therefrom. As such there is a need in the art for methods and systems for reducing and/or removing the amount of oxygen from an oxidative dehydrogenation product and/or a product stream of an oxidative dehydrogenation process. In various embodiments, the methods and systems of the present invention meet that need.